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* BlandNameProduct: In the manga, the Otome game was released on the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 PlayWorld4]]
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* BlandNameProduct: In the manga, the Otome game was released on the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 [[Platform/PlayStation4 PlayWorld4]]
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Has been adapted into manga form. Also known as ''The Villainous Daughter’s Butler, I Raised Her to be Very Cute''.
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* TitleDrop: In the manga, for its Japanese subtitle ("I raised her to be very cute")
--> ''Cyril:'' There's no way my lady that I've raised wouldn't be cute, right?
--> ''Cyril:'' There's no way my lady that I've raised wouldn't be cute, right?
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!! The VillainousDaughter's Butler, I'll Crush The Destruction Flags has the following tropes.
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!! The VillainousDaughter's Villainous Daughter's Butler, I'll Crush The Destruction Flags has the following tropes.
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!! The VillainousDaughter's Butler, I'll Crush The Destruction Flags has the following tropes.
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* BlandNameProduct: In the manga, the Otome game was released on the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 PlayWorld4]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/villainessbutlercover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: [[PluckyGirl Alicia]], [[BattleButler Cyril]], [[GuileHero Sophia]], and [[HumbleHero Prince Alforth]]]]
Regaining the [[PastLifeMemories memories of his previous life]], Cyril realized that [[MediaTransmigration he was now]] an OtomeGame character, the butler to its villainous noble daughter, Sophia. At the rate things were going, Sophia would eventually have the prince stolen away from her by the heroine, fall into darkness, and be executed. Wanting to save the villainous daughter he was so fond of, Cyril moved to eliminate all the factors that would cause her to fall into darkness, raising her up to be a talented and beautiful girl who could win the prince’s love.
In trying to destroy the EventFlag for the game’s protagonist Alicia had with the prince, Cyril came to realize that he had taken the prince’s place in the game’s LoveTriangle. This leaves Cyril balancing between managing Sophia’s {{Yandere}} instincts, and protecting her by helping her navigate the DecadentCourt schemes and class struggles going on around them.
Has been adapted into manga form. Also known as ''The Villainous Daughter’s Butler, I Raised Her to be Very Cute''.
----
* AccidentalProposal: Prince Alforth offering Sophia a blue rose, which only members of the Royal Family are allowed to possess, prompting Cyril to risk being charged with [[FeeFiFauxPas lese majesty]] by informing him of the fact.
* AdLib: InUniverse, when the cast have a very high production SchoolPlay, they do this a lot to reflect their feelings about their characters and the subtext of the [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]] amongst the cast.
* AdoptAServant: This is de-facto what Sophia and Cyril do with the slum runaways Emma and Roy, taking the place of their blood parents who sold Emma into slavery.
* AgeGapRomance:
** The romantic undertones between Cyril and others qualify as this if you consider Cyril’s mental age being older due to reincarnation.
** InUniverse, the fact that Professor Tristan was a capture target as part of a TeacherStudentRomance for Alicia.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: Prince Alforth and Alicia’s tendency of literally stepping on their dance partner’s feet. Cyril manages to make Alicia stop by distracting her from her anxiety.
* AlmightyJanitor:
** Cyril, mostly through connections to friends, allies, and the Dark Guild.
** It’s noted that Sophia having [[spoiler: Prince Alforth within her faction, instead of her being in his faction, is extremely unusual due to him having a higher rank.]] As well, the influence of her faction dealing in the introduction of potato crops and crepe restaurants is far more than most school faction related activities (as school factions are essentially supposed to be practice for adult noble life).
* ApologeticAttacker: Sophia’s head maid Roche when ordered by an angry Sophia to throw Cyril into a room with her.
* ArcWords:
** The CentralTheme of Light and Darkness.
** Cyril’s DeclarationOfProtection to Sophia being referred to by both of them.
* BattleButler: Cyril is fully qualified as this, although we don’t get to see it much due to the relatively peaceful setting. He ensures Roy and Emma are trained to be Sophia’s bodyguards as well.
* BenevolentConspiracy:
** Cyril, after being reincarnated, could have used his knowledge and saved his own hide. However, he was a big fan of Sophia so he decided to use his knowledge to give her a happier childhood and steer her clear of any death flags.
** Sophia being TheChessmaster plotting to make Cyril into a noble so that the two can be able to marry is one of these. This is why she is always praising Cyril at public events and such. She avoids telling him directly, but teases him for wondering what her plans are many times.
* {{Blackmail}}: When Sophia and Cyril bust a scheme by one of the elitist children to buy up land around one of her faction’s sponsored Crepe restaurants, Cyril uses the witnesses and evidence over it (impersonating a noble is illegal), to put the student’s parents under the two’s influence.
* BodyguardingABadass: Cyril guarding Sophia, due to the fact that Cyril has taught her extensive self-defense techniques (which she practices daily.) This leads to a snarky exchange where he chides her for stealing his job by beating someone up herself. The slum kids they take in, Roy and Emma, are also trained to bodyguard her.
* BodyguardCrush:
** The martial arts instructor at the academy got an injury while protecting his lady charge that kept him from staying an active duty knight, but ended up marrying her.
** Cyril’s (deeply buried) feelings for Sophia.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Cyril’s reaction to Luke admitting he’s been spying on him is a bit like this, since he expects people to look into the daughter of a Marquess.
* CentralTheme: That everybody has a light and a dark side to their personality, which was also a theme of the InUniverse game.
* ChekhovsGunman: Cyril’s dance partner at the entrance exam, Fol, later joins the main cast.
* TheChessmaster: Sophia’s reputation and influence leads to rumors spreading about, alternatingly, her father Grave and Cyril being this, using her as a proxy for their political goals. What those people don’t know, is that Sophia is the real chess master, manipulating both of those two. At least she’s a mostly kind person and doesn’t treat people as disposable.
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: The way Sophia sees the promise Cyril made to her when they first meet is a less clear cut variation of this. While it was actually a DeclarationOfProtection, what he said wasn’t too far off from marriage vows. She’s deadly serious about it.
* ChildProdigy: Cyril may seem like an obvious case, but he has the excuse of PastLifeMemories. Sophia is a better example, although this is partially a result of Cyril’s education of her. It’s noted that Cyril’s uncle and teacher Tristan was a prodigy as well.
* CosplayOtakuGirl: Cyril’s past-life sister was one of these.
* CryIntoChest: [[spoiler: Sophia does this with Cyril upon finding out that her friend Fol’s days are numbered due to an incurable disease. It makes her maid Roche wary about Cyril possibly hurting her in the long run by lying to her that he’ll cure it.]]
* ADayInTheLimelight: The side story about the slum kids Roy and Emma working at a diner as part of their training. As well as the side story exploring Raymond’s DarkAndTroubledPast and CharacterDevelopment.
* DecadentCourt: The academy middle school has shades of this, which is noted by multiple people, to be just a taste of the scheming that goes on between the adult nobles. Which is horrifying considering some of the things [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior these kids]] get up to.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Cyril issues one of these when first meeting Sophia and often repeats it.
* DecoyLeader: The leader of TheMafia Nameless uses one of these in his meeting only to be seen right through by Cyril (who had knowledge about him from playing the game).
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Cyril forgiving and trusting Raymond after he fails his challenge, makes Raymond into a loyal friend.
* DesignatedParents: Sophia and Cyril are this for Sophia’s faction and the servant’s A class, respectively.
* DisappointedInYou:
** Cyril being disappointed in Sophia for not rejecting Prince Alforth’s associates asking her to dance, leaving Libert hanging, since she didn’t realize that not everyone knows how important Cyril, who was left with Libert, is to her.
** [[spoiler: After the rose garden incident where Sophia went berserk on said two associates, Alforth begs Cyril to tell him how Sophia feels about him, and Cyril’s honest answer is that she’s this.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: From the point of view of Grave Rosenberg, Sophia’s father, [[spoiler: what happened in the rose garden was Sophia reacting to Jill-cliff and Serges merely criticizing Cyril, by beating the two into the ground and annihilating their family.]] He’s technically not wrong.
* DopeSlap: In Cyril’s servant class, Chloe tends to do this to Luke, who [[OvertOperative couldn’t be discreet if his life depended on it.]]
* DoubleMeaning: In almost every chapter there are lines like this explained by Cyril, about how they are said to avoid disrespecting those of different status. Prince Alforth and Alicia struggle with this but both grow more capable of understanding them over time.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: When jealous, both Sophia and Alicia display these.
* DyingTown: Isabella’s rural home town, who cobbled together all they could to help her become an actress, and she sends part of her earnings back to regularly. As thanks for her spying for him, Cyril has them given newly introduced potatoes to cultivate.
* EngagementChallenge: Fol’s main role in the game’s ExpansionPack was to offer one of these to the game’s protagonist.
* EscalatingWar: Sophia and Cyril’s lighthearted teasing of one another is a bit like this.
* ExactWords:
** Sophia agreeing to Raymond’s challenge to let him replace Cyril as her personal butler “If I deem you better for the job”, allowing her to deny him no matter what.
** Cyril played Nameless and the Dark Guild with this when negotiating with them about the fates of Roy and Emma. The agreement was to make them ''"loyal"'' servants to the Rosenberg Household, as opposed to the guild’s original plan of using them as spies.
* ExpansionPack: The game had one that Cyril didn’t play, ‘’The Eve of the Festival’’, that developed existing characters as well as introducing new routes for a different protagonist.
* ExpansionPackPast: InUniverse, the games expansion somewhat served as this, including scenes like Sophia chasing away the two slum children Roy and Emma, followed by them seeking revenge.
* FamedInStory: Her mature impression at the prince’s birthday party at ten made Sophia famous, known as ''A saint descended upon high society''. After entering the academy, she starts doing everything she can to make Cyril famous as well. This ends up causing a number of issues for both of them.
* FantasticCasteSystem: It’s not so much a fantastical caste system, as it is more seriously displayed and implemented in the setting than for most other fantasy stories set in a medieval kingdom. Despite the platitude of the academy they go to treating everyone as equals, there are very strict rules the characters must live by, including not insulting those above them. Cyril often points out the mistakes other make in this regard, but he isn’t immune to FeeFiFauxPas, usually as a calculated risk or self-sacrifice to protect Sophia.
* FeeFiFauxPas: Since noble customs are taken so seriously in this work, this pops up all the time, especially relating to Prince Alforth (his unbecoming words, and the danger of his inferiors correcting them). In particular, criticizing a royal is grounds for treason and execution (lese majesty). It’s noted that Cyril can only get away with some of these he knowingly makes because of the kindness of certain people around him.
* FictionalDisability: Sophia has an illness where her mana levels overflow, effecting her health and mental state if she doesn’t release the excess energy. It turns her eyes red when it overloads. [[spoiler: Princess Fol also has the same disability and is able to be saved due to Cyril realizing this and treating her.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sophia and Cyril’s dances with Fol serve as this for later arcs, as the start of the JigsawPuzzlePlot threads that end up there.
* FrameUp: The noble who hired debt collectors to take over the diner in the Roy and Emma side story had the collectors pretending to be working for Sophia, using a symbol as proof, to try and pin it on her.
* FriendlyRivalry: This is how the opposing parts of the main cast’s [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]] tend to treat each-other.
* RichesToRags: Nameless’ backstory has him being TheScapegoat for another noble’s folly, and forced into ruin, causing him to work his way up The Dark Guild.
* GameOfChicken: Some of Sophia’s teasing of Cyril involves things like this, such as offering him an IndirectKiss. He typically looks around to make sure nobody sees before taking the bait and flustering her.
* GuileHero: Cyril and Sophia are good examples of this, who use social means and schemes always before resorting to force.
* HeroWorshipper: Raymond becomes this to Cyril after Cyril forgives him. The inner circle of Sophia’s faction are this to varying degrees as well.
* HistoryRepeats:
** Cyril is living under the shadow of his uncle Tristan who went through similar things to him in the past, being a prodigy who was visited by a royal prince in his classroom and eventually taken in as their servant.
** Luke and Chloe were picked up as slum kids and trained as servants, which is repeated with Roy and Emma.
* HonestAdvisor: Cyril acts as this for Sophia and others. For those he’s assigned to tutor, it can overlap with SadistTeacher. Libert feels some sympathy for Sophia in that regard, but she jokes [[{{Unishment}} she’d prefer if he was even harsher.]]
* HumanTraffickers: This story takes a slightly sympathetic angle on the topic: Emma and Roy’s parents, due to their debts, sold Emma as this to be a SexSlave for one gold coin, prompting the two to run away together until they got saved by Sophia. It’s noted by Cyril that this is an everyday occurrence in that world’s slums, as part of the game’s theme of Light and Darkness. When negotiating with the Dark Guild for permission to keep the two as servants, Nameless insist on knowing what will be done with them before agreeing. The two’s parents when they appear are portrayed as people who were just between a rock and a hard place, as well.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: During Sophia’s first martial arts class in the Academy, both her and her instructor hold back, which the instructor realizes as she nearly grabbed a concealed weapon.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Pamela’s household are poor despite being Earl ranked, or at least compared to that rank.
* ImprobableAge: For all of the intrigue and political maneuvering going on, as well as the romance plotlines, it’s hard to believe that most of the cast are around twelve years of age. This is highlighted by the contrast of Prince Alforth’s normality. The situation is commented on InUniverse, with the King commenting that Sophia’s level of influence is abnormal considering middle-school factions are supposed to be pretend practice for the real political struggles of adulthood, but Sophia’s father sees it as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior and is utterly terrified of her.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Alicia and Prince Alforth’s common social blunders relating to their status and those of their surroundings.
* InstantFanClub: Sophia’s first day at the Academy sees her taking one of these to a tea party, and building on it from there with exclusive treats courtesy of Cyril, looking after them as TeamMom. It’s existence is justified both by her high pedigree and her impactful debut two years earlier. The group grows to rival the royal prince’s factions.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler: Prince Alforth declares this about Sophia when he asks Cyril to play the prince at their SchoolPlay, due to Sophia playing the Heroine at the last minute.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The mystery of who was investigating Cyril at the school entrance exam was the start of one of these. All of the questions raised are properly answered in time.
* KarmicThief: Nameless is a scapegoated former noble who only takes actions that he sees as justly punishing the cruel nobility; he backstabbed the game version of Sophia for asking him to perpetrate the very crime that happened to him. He makes sure nothing too bad will happen to Emma and Roy when Sophia picks them up.
* KneelBeforeZod: [[spoiler: When Jill-cliff and Serges demand this of Cyril for speaking out of turn in the rose garden, it crosses Sophia’s RageBreakingPoint.]]
* LadyAndKnight: Sophia and Cyril are probably more like this than lady and butler. The dynamic has aspects of both the light and dark types, as befitting the CentralTheme.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The maid who was about to spend years bullying Sophia was MadeASlave and sold off to the Dark Guild thanks to Cyril’s intervention and investigation of her other crimes. In the game timeline, after she was found out, she was instead executed.
* LegacyOfService: It’s a common practice for noble households to keep the same family as their servants over generations, and Cyril comes from one such family; his father Cedric is the butler to Sophia’s father. Raymond's father is also a butler who died trying to shield his master in their crashed carriage.
* LikeADaughterToMe: Queen Adale sees Sophia like the daughter she could never have, having had only sons.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: According to Cyril’s mother, he got the trait of being a perennial heart-breaker from his father.
* LikeMotherLikeDaughter: Sophia's fierce rages were inherited from her mother, according to her father.
* LoveAtFirstSight:
** Cyril notes that it’s not uncommon for boys to react this way to Sophia.
** A side story showing Alicia’s first meeting with Cyril shows that it was this for her.
* LoveDodecahedron: What starts as a simple trio of [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]], turns into this once the spinoff game and its capture targets and "villains" come into play.
* LoveTriangle: Multiple, although the two in opposition tend to have a FriendlyRivalry and actually get along pretty well.
** Cyril and Prince Alforth over Sophia.
** Sophia and Alicia over Cyril.
** Libert and Cyril over Alicia.
* LowCultureHighTech: In order for the setting to have spotlights and such, this is justified in two ways: First, it’s a transmigrated game setting, and the game designers wanted nobility tropes but also such modern props for storytelling convenience and to keep things pretty. Secondly, in the world, it’s explained that these are magical items that were developed by nobles due to extended times of peace.
* TheMafia: The Dark Guild led by Nameless.
* MagicEnhancement: Some of the magical spells that Cyril knows from his past life are of this flavor, for instance, allowing him SuperSpeed to save Pamela from hitting the floor when she faints.
* MassOhCrap: This happens frequently in situations where someone is unaware of the DoubleMeaning of their actions, but everyone around them are. Most notably being when the Prince offers Sophia a blue rose. Him doing so can be seen as [[AccidentalProposal a proposal]], and the situation with them being around his followers, turning him down will heavily affect her family. It was thanks to Cyril's quick thinking that it was avoided.
* MediaTransmigration: Cyril transmigrating into an otome game he played due to the influence of his past-life sister.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: The woman who tries to unnerve Cyril with seduction when he first meets with the Dark Guild gets roundly ignored by him.
* ObliviousToLove: {{Averted}}. Cyril knows that Sophia and Alicia have fallen for him after the prince’s birthday party. He shows some evidence of being in denial that it's just temporary for Sophia, but not obliviousness.
* OutlawTown: The slums, which are home to The Dark Guild, who deal with HumanTraffickers, and presumably other black market dealings.
* OvertOperative: Cyril’s servant classmate Luke is really not good at hiding his spying.
* PastLifeMemories:
** Cyril awoke to these around the age of five, before his character’s personality could properly form.
** [[spoiler: Tristan on the other hand, awoke to the memories of Cyril’s past-life sister much later on, resulting in something of a FusionDance.]]
* PennyAmongDiamonds:
** Cyril is not just a commoner, but a servant too, meaning there are even more strict restrictions on his behavior. So this trope is heavily woven into the work, pointing out all the everyday things people say that he and other servants aren’t allowed to. The classes in the academy are actually segregated into Noble, Common, and Servant courses, but of course most of who Cyril interacts with are nobles and he’s always walking on a tightrope.
** Downplayed with Alicia, a lower ranked noble.
** The protagonist of the game’s ExpansionPack Pamela is an ImpoverishedPatrician.
* PleaBargain: In the Roy and Emma side story, this is how Cyril gets one of the crooks involved in the real estate FrameUp scheme to spill the name of their employer, allowing him to blackmail the employer’s parents.
* ThePromise: Cyril promises to do something no matter what it is for Sophia to calm her jealous rage at one point, and it’s repeatedly referred to. [[spoiler: Sophia calls it in on Cyril to save Fol from her seemingly incurable illness, but he encourages her to do so because he knows its treatment, since it’s the same illness Sophia has.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Libert is paranoid generally and about Cyril due to his past involving his innocent sister being killed by a noble. This makes Libert one of the less foolhardy students, in their setting filled to the brim with scheming and backstabbing. Cyril doesn’t blame him for being cautious. Indeed, Libert knows that being involved with Cyril will lead to being involved in big incidents, which Cyril apologizes in advance for.
* {{Protectorate}}: Cyril’s key motivation is protecting Sophia, but she has similar goals regarding him, which puts them at odds sometimes.
* PsychoticSmirk: Sophia tends to make these when plotting, she later reveals that she actually learned it from Cyril.
* PushoverParents: {{Subverted}}. Sophia’s father Grave seems like this at first, for allowing his daughter to take Cyril as her escort to the Prince’s birthday party and other things. But it’s later revealed that she has been extensively pressuring and manipulating him, leaving him utterly terrified of what she might do to him.
* QuakingWithFear: Sophia’s father Grave, after having been scared of Sophia’s TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior for years, is left like this upon realizing that he’s been caught breaking his word with her.
* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler: When Jill-cliff and Serges demand Cyril kowtow for speaking out of turn, causing Sophia to rave about their hypocrisy before beating them down, having them locked up, and driving their family to ruin.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cyril’s servant course teacher Tristan, as well as King Theodore and Queen Adale. The latter mention that Cyril would likely be executed if anyone else were in charge.
* RebornAsVillainessStory: The person reincarnated into the Villainess story is not the villainess herself, Sophia, but rather her butler, Cyril. However, in the endings which feature Sophia's death, Cyril is executed as well for being an accomplice, so his neck's still on the line. To this end, he manages to make himself her butler when they're both six, deals with the childhood issues that would lead to the worst of her later villainy, and tries to get her on the path to marrying a prince. Hampering this is that Sophia is in love with Cyril for all he's done for her, and some of those darker traits he tried to prevent come out when she gets jealous.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Sophia’s eyes turn red when she’s extremely angry, due to her FictionalDisability.
* ReincarnateInAnotherWorld: The protagonist Cyril, with the added twist of his home being a world of both modern technology AND advanced magic that he studied at the college level.
* RenaissanceMan: Cyril is a pretty good example of this. He notes that servant education expects one to be this rather than specializing.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Tristan did a FusionDance with Cyril’s past-life sister when awakening to her PastLifeMemories at a later age than Cyril did. The one who sent Fol, Luke, and Chloe to spy on Cyril was in fact Tristan. That was because, having knowledge of both the game and its ExpansionPack from those memories, Tristan was WrongGenreSavvy that Cyril was a HaremSeeker scoundrel, and wary of him, but also suspected Cyril’s identity and thus ability to save Fol from her critical illness. The reason Fol’s advisor, who wrote the SchoolPlay script based on the game, was a “she”, was because Fol was aware of the dual persona.]]
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: This ends up happening between the political machinations of Sophia and her father Grave. [[spoiler: Sophia actually was successful at convincing him to let her marry Cyril after they figure out a way to make him a noble… however, the Royal Family ends up becoming a problem because if Cyril was adopted by them like they want, the influence and power represented by Sophia and Cyril would leave the Rosenberg household entirely, causing Grave to warn Cyril not to stand out too much. He ends up bending to Sophia’s will after she finds out.]]
* RoyalFavorite: It’s explored that certain forms of this are actually common and expected, such as a higher ranking noble taking a lower ranked one under their protection in a mutually beneficial arrangement, as well as commoners being sponsored due to the talents they display. Sophia does this for the nobles of her self-created faction, and the objective of many of Cyril’s servant’s class is to obtain such a patron. As for the type of favorite described by the trope, Cyril himself is a good example due to Sophia’s favor allowing him to get away with speaking as equals to those above his status.
* TheScapegoat:
** This is the backstory for Nameless, who got scapegoated for the crimes of another noble which led him into ruin and seeking revenge on nobles who abuse their power.
** One of the ends for Sophia in the game was being scapegoated by the Elitist faction just so, which makes Cyril extra vigilant about them.
* ScoundrelCode: Nameless’ Dark Guild has a number of rules and codes of conduct despite its illegal nature.
* SecretKeeper:
** [[spoiler: Sophia’s father Grave knowing that Cyril has the cure for Fol’s deadly illness, and holding it back as part of his own plans, which get busted when Sophia orders Cyril to treat her.]]
** [[spoiler: Fol knowing about the world being based on a game, having learned it from another reincarnator, Tristan.]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: The dances that Sophia and Cyril had with Fol in their entrance exam were this, for instance, to how Cyril would react to Fol forcibly leading him.
* SeriesGoal: Our protagonist Cyril’s goal is to both protect and prevent the fall into darkness of Sophia.
* SiblingTeam:
** Roy and Emma as servants in training after being taken in in an AdoptAServant manner by Sophia.
** The elitist brats Jill-cliff and Serges who follow Prince Alforth around and butt into his dealings with Sophia.
* SoProudOfYou: Cyril has many moments like this for his friends, mostly Sophia due to educating her.
* {{Subtext}}: It’s almost a RunningGag about Prince Alforth not understanding any subtext being said around him, and the accidental subtext interpreted from his own words. To a lesser extent the other students have this going over their heads, but at least their servants tend to whisper to them to explain it. It’s only natural since they’re around twelve years old.
* TeacherStudentRomance:
** Considering Cyril is her PrivateTutor, all of the romantic developments between him and Sophia qualify as this, although at least physically they’re the same age.
** InUniverse, the Tristan route in the game could see the protagonist Alicia romancing said teacher; at least he wasn’t teaching her class, but the servant’s course.
* TeamMom: Sophia is a good example of this, mothering her friends and faction members as well as the slum children Emma and Roy.
* ThereIsAnother: [[spoiler: Tristan, the King's butler, reveals he knows Cyril shouldn't have been Sophia's butler for another three years.]]
* ThroughHerStomach: Cyril does this for Sophia, and to an extent to other friends and servants. He’s almost like a doting grandparent in that regard.
* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: [[spoiler: Sophia’s older brother challenging Cyril to a duel for making her cry, which also served as a test to see if he is worthy of her.]]
* TooMuchInformation: Cyril feels this way about the arguments that Fol and Prince Lancelot have around him.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sophia’s is shortcake.
* TragicVillain: The multiple villainous daughters of the game’s setting were this in one way or another. Cyril doesn’t intend on letting it happen.
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler: Prince Alforth being so clueless is mainly the result of his PrivateTutor being in the pocket of the elitist faction. This ends when the advisor is exposed and executed, and then Cyril appointed to tutor Alforth instead.]]
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: From the perspective of Sophia’s father Grave, her engaging in political scheming from as early as the age of 10 is this. Nobles are generally expected to grow up fast, but Sophia easily acts twice her age, and considering her actions through the story can be quite terrifying.
** Cyril's own father experienced this when he returned home one day to find his son - still only a few years old - was talking with a vocabularly and reading books way too advanced for his age. In general, Cyril's knowledge, skills, and wisdom are seen as unnatural to every adult he meets. However, it's also seen as impressive and desirable, which leads to many aristocratic parents trusting him with their children's education: such is the case with Sophia and Alforth, hoping that his troubling unchildlike behaviour will actually rub off on them.
* {{Unishment}}: Sophia is a little too excited to be punished by Cyril.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: For the game’s ExpansionPack, the player gets punished with a BadEnd if they’re three-timing the three capture targets.
* VillainousBreakdown: In the game’s Alforth route, Sophia was supposed to go on one of these just before her execution. Subverted when the cast do a SchoolPlay version of said scene, changing it with a massive AdLib.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: Averted by Cyril, who plans in advance for just about everything that could be a danger to Sophia. For instance, [[spoiler: he buys info on Jill-cliff and Serges to blackmail or destroy them should the need arise, operating on the hunch that they had skeletons in their closet because they didn’t appear in the game.]]
* VillainTeamUp: In the game’s ExpansionPack, pursuing all three of its capture targets at once would cause all of its potential villains to team up and drive the protagonist to ruin.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Cyril’s relationship with Libert develops into this.
* WatsonianVersusDoylist: The explanation Cyril gives for the game’s medieval setting having spotlights and regulated sewers and such, makes sure to cover both of these perspectives.
* WhamLine: In Chapter 16 we get this bombshell.
-->[[spoiler:'''Tristian''': [[ThereIsAnother He (Cyril) wasn't supposed to show up in the academy until three years later.]]]]
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: This was a part of what deteriorated Sophia’s mental health in the game timeline, along with her maid bullying her, molding Sophia into a {{Yandere}}. Despite Cyril fixing the maid issue, she still seems to be one or on the verge of being one. It was also why the game version of Sophia had a big brother complex.
* WifeHusbandry: While Cyril was specifically trying to prepare Sophia for her trying noble life and appeal to Alforth in order to be able to win his love (which she failed to do in the game), one could easily interpret Cyril’s actions as this, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. He is called out for it more than once.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Considering most of the cast are around 12 years old, you could count any of the more intelligent ones as this, but especially Cyril due to past-life knowledge and Sophia as the result of him teaching her.
* WrongGenreSavvy: [[spoiler: Tristan thinking that Cyril was some sort of HaremSeeker scoundrel. There was actually a lot of evidence for this conclusion, since Cyril unknowingly took romance flags from the ExpansionPack as well as the main game.]]
* XanatosGambit: Cyril’s ever-shifting plans involve protecting Sophia at any cost, even if that cost is his own life or suffering, a fact that Sophia is really disturbed by as that’s the last thing she’d want.
* {{Yandere}}: Half of Cyril’s worries are about Sophia going full yandere over him, which he calls “falling to darkness”. As things are, she’s pretty much a GuileHero yandere who uses connections, plots, and schemes to get to her objective of being able to marry Cyril despite their difference in pedigree. There is actually an explanation for her yandere outburst to Cyril: She has an illness that effects her mental state when her mana levels overflow.
* YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe: Cyril gets more and more exasperated like this as he learns about how he had been unknowingly getting entangled in the game’s ExpansionPack and meets the repercussions.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler: Fol has an incurable illness that’s slated to kill her before half a year is up. It’s hinted through her symptoms that it’s the same illness Sophia has, and Cyril does indeed treat her.]]
----
[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: [[PluckyGirl Alicia]], [[BattleButler Cyril]], [[GuileHero Sophia]], and [[HumbleHero Prince Alforth]]]]
Regaining the [[PastLifeMemories memories of his previous life]], Cyril realized that [[MediaTransmigration he was now]] an OtomeGame character, the butler to its villainous noble daughter, Sophia. At the rate things were going, Sophia would eventually have the prince stolen away from her by the heroine, fall into darkness, and be executed. Wanting to save the villainous daughter he was so fond of, Cyril moved to eliminate all the factors that would cause her to fall into darkness, raising her up to be a talented and beautiful girl who could win the prince’s love.
In trying to destroy the EventFlag for the game’s protagonist Alicia had with the prince, Cyril came to realize that he had taken the prince’s place in the game’s LoveTriangle. This leaves Cyril balancing between managing Sophia’s {{Yandere}} instincts, and protecting her by helping her navigate the DecadentCourt schemes and class struggles going on around them.
Has been adapted into manga form. Also known as ''The Villainous Daughter’s Butler, I Raised Her to be Very Cute''.
----
* AccidentalProposal: Prince Alforth offering Sophia a blue rose, which only members of the Royal Family are allowed to possess, prompting Cyril to risk being charged with [[FeeFiFauxPas lese majesty]] by informing him of the fact.
* AdLib: InUniverse, when the cast have a very high production SchoolPlay, they do this a lot to reflect their feelings about their characters and the subtext of the [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]] amongst the cast.
* AdoptAServant: This is de-facto what Sophia and Cyril do with the slum runaways Emma and Roy, taking the place of their blood parents who sold Emma into slavery.
* AgeGapRomance:
** The romantic undertones between Cyril and others qualify as this if you consider Cyril’s mental age being older due to reincarnation.
** InUniverse, the fact that Professor Tristan was a capture target as part of a TeacherStudentRomance for Alicia.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: Prince Alforth and Alicia’s tendency of literally stepping on their dance partner’s feet. Cyril manages to make Alicia stop by distracting her from her anxiety.
* AlmightyJanitor:
** Cyril, mostly through connections to friends, allies, and the Dark Guild.
** It’s noted that Sophia having [[spoiler: Prince Alforth within her faction, instead of her being in his faction, is extremely unusual due to him having a higher rank.]] As well, the influence of her faction dealing in the introduction of potato crops and crepe restaurants is far more than most school faction related activities (as school factions are essentially supposed to be practice for adult noble life).
* ApologeticAttacker: Sophia’s head maid Roche when ordered by an angry Sophia to throw Cyril into a room with her.
* ArcWords:
** The CentralTheme of Light and Darkness.
** Cyril’s DeclarationOfProtection to Sophia being referred to by both of them.
* BattleButler: Cyril is fully qualified as this, although we don’t get to see it much due to the relatively peaceful setting. He ensures Roy and Emma are trained to be Sophia’s bodyguards as well.
* BenevolentConspiracy:
** Cyril, after being reincarnated, could have used his knowledge and saved his own hide. However, he was a big fan of Sophia so he decided to use his knowledge to give her a happier childhood and steer her clear of any death flags.
** Sophia being TheChessmaster plotting to make Cyril into a noble so that the two can be able to marry is one of these. This is why she is always praising Cyril at public events and such. She avoids telling him directly, but teases him for wondering what her plans are many times.
* {{Blackmail}}: When Sophia and Cyril bust a scheme by one of the elitist children to buy up land around one of her faction’s sponsored Crepe restaurants, Cyril uses the witnesses and evidence over it (impersonating a noble is illegal), to put the student’s parents under the two’s influence.
* BodyguardingABadass: Cyril guarding Sophia, due to the fact that Cyril has taught her extensive self-defense techniques (which she practices daily.) This leads to a snarky exchange where he chides her for stealing his job by beating someone up herself. The slum kids they take in, Roy and Emma, are also trained to bodyguard her.
* BodyguardCrush:
** The martial arts instructor at the academy got an injury while protecting his lady charge that kept him from staying an active duty knight, but ended up marrying her.
** Cyril’s (deeply buried) feelings for Sophia.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Cyril’s reaction to Luke admitting he’s been spying on him is a bit like this, since he expects people to look into the daughter of a Marquess.
* CentralTheme: That everybody has a light and a dark side to their personality, which was also a theme of the InUniverse game.
* ChekhovsGunman: Cyril’s dance partner at the entrance exam, Fol, later joins the main cast.
* TheChessmaster: Sophia’s reputation and influence leads to rumors spreading about, alternatingly, her father Grave and Cyril being this, using her as a proxy for their political goals. What those people don’t know, is that Sophia is the real chess master, manipulating both of those two. At least she’s a mostly kind person and doesn’t treat people as disposable.
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: The way Sophia sees the promise Cyril made to her when they first meet is a less clear cut variation of this. While it was actually a DeclarationOfProtection, what he said wasn’t too far off from marriage vows. She’s deadly serious about it.
* ChildProdigy: Cyril may seem like an obvious case, but he has the excuse of PastLifeMemories. Sophia is a better example, although this is partially a result of Cyril’s education of her. It’s noted that Cyril’s uncle and teacher Tristan was a prodigy as well.
* CosplayOtakuGirl: Cyril’s past-life sister was one of these.
* CryIntoChest: [[spoiler: Sophia does this with Cyril upon finding out that her friend Fol’s days are numbered due to an incurable disease. It makes her maid Roche wary about Cyril possibly hurting her in the long run by lying to her that he’ll cure it.]]
* ADayInTheLimelight: The side story about the slum kids Roy and Emma working at a diner as part of their training. As well as the side story exploring Raymond’s DarkAndTroubledPast and CharacterDevelopment.
* DecadentCourt: The academy middle school has shades of this, which is noted by multiple people, to be just a taste of the scheming that goes on between the adult nobles. Which is horrifying considering some of the things [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior these kids]] get up to.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Cyril issues one of these when first meeting Sophia and often repeats it.
* DecoyLeader: The leader of TheMafia Nameless uses one of these in his meeting only to be seen right through by Cyril (who had knowledge about him from playing the game).
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Cyril forgiving and trusting Raymond after he fails his challenge, makes Raymond into a loyal friend.
* DesignatedParents: Sophia and Cyril are this for Sophia’s faction and the servant’s A class, respectively.
* DisappointedInYou:
** Cyril being disappointed in Sophia for not rejecting Prince Alforth’s associates asking her to dance, leaving Libert hanging, since she didn’t realize that not everyone knows how important Cyril, who was left with Libert, is to her.
** [[spoiler: After the rose garden incident where Sophia went berserk on said two associates, Alforth begs Cyril to tell him how Sophia feels about him, and Cyril’s honest answer is that she’s this.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: From the point of view of Grave Rosenberg, Sophia’s father, [[spoiler: what happened in the rose garden was Sophia reacting to Jill-cliff and Serges merely criticizing Cyril, by beating the two into the ground and annihilating their family.]] He’s technically not wrong.
* DopeSlap: In Cyril’s servant class, Chloe tends to do this to Luke, who [[OvertOperative couldn’t be discreet if his life depended on it.]]
* DoubleMeaning: In almost every chapter there are lines like this explained by Cyril, about how they are said to avoid disrespecting those of different status. Prince Alforth and Alicia struggle with this but both grow more capable of understanding them over time.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: When jealous, both Sophia and Alicia display these.
* DyingTown: Isabella’s rural home town, who cobbled together all they could to help her become an actress, and she sends part of her earnings back to regularly. As thanks for her spying for him, Cyril has them given newly introduced potatoes to cultivate.
* EngagementChallenge: Fol’s main role in the game’s ExpansionPack was to offer one of these to the game’s protagonist.
* EscalatingWar: Sophia and Cyril’s lighthearted teasing of one another is a bit like this.
* ExactWords:
** Sophia agreeing to Raymond’s challenge to let him replace Cyril as her personal butler “If I deem you better for the job”, allowing her to deny him no matter what.
** Cyril played Nameless and the Dark Guild with this when negotiating with them about the fates of Roy and Emma. The agreement was to make them ''"loyal"'' servants to the Rosenberg Household, as opposed to the guild’s original plan of using them as spies.
* ExpansionPack: The game had one that Cyril didn’t play, ‘’The Eve of the Festival’’, that developed existing characters as well as introducing new routes for a different protagonist.
* ExpansionPackPast: InUniverse, the games expansion somewhat served as this, including scenes like Sophia chasing away the two slum children Roy and Emma, followed by them seeking revenge.
* FamedInStory: Her mature impression at the prince’s birthday party at ten made Sophia famous, known as ''A saint descended upon high society''. After entering the academy, she starts doing everything she can to make Cyril famous as well. This ends up causing a number of issues for both of them.
* FantasticCasteSystem: It’s not so much a fantastical caste system, as it is more seriously displayed and implemented in the setting than for most other fantasy stories set in a medieval kingdom. Despite the platitude of the academy they go to treating everyone as equals, there are very strict rules the characters must live by, including not insulting those above them. Cyril often points out the mistakes other make in this regard, but he isn’t immune to FeeFiFauxPas, usually as a calculated risk or self-sacrifice to protect Sophia.
* FeeFiFauxPas: Since noble customs are taken so seriously in this work, this pops up all the time, especially relating to Prince Alforth (his unbecoming words, and the danger of his inferiors correcting them). In particular, criticizing a royal is grounds for treason and execution (lese majesty). It’s noted that Cyril can only get away with some of these he knowingly makes because of the kindness of certain people around him.
* FictionalDisability: Sophia has an illness where her mana levels overflow, effecting her health and mental state if she doesn’t release the excess energy. It turns her eyes red when it overloads. [[spoiler: Princess Fol also has the same disability and is able to be saved due to Cyril realizing this and treating her.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sophia and Cyril’s dances with Fol serve as this for later arcs, as the start of the JigsawPuzzlePlot threads that end up there.
* FrameUp: The noble who hired debt collectors to take over the diner in the Roy and Emma side story had the collectors pretending to be working for Sophia, using a symbol as proof, to try and pin it on her.
* FriendlyRivalry: This is how the opposing parts of the main cast’s [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]] tend to treat each-other.
* RichesToRags: Nameless’ backstory has him being TheScapegoat for another noble’s folly, and forced into ruin, causing him to work his way up The Dark Guild.
* GameOfChicken: Some of Sophia’s teasing of Cyril involves things like this, such as offering him an IndirectKiss. He typically looks around to make sure nobody sees before taking the bait and flustering her.
* GuileHero: Cyril and Sophia are good examples of this, who use social means and schemes always before resorting to force.
* HeroWorshipper: Raymond becomes this to Cyril after Cyril forgives him. The inner circle of Sophia’s faction are this to varying degrees as well.
* HistoryRepeats:
** Cyril is living under the shadow of his uncle Tristan who went through similar things to him in the past, being a prodigy who was visited by a royal prince in his classroom and eventually taken in as their servant.
** Luke and Chloe were picked up as slum kids and trained as servants, which is repeated with Roy and Emma.
* HonestAdvisor: Cyril acts as this for Sophia and others. For those he’s assigned to tutor, it can overlap with SadistTeacher. Libert feels some sympathy for Sophia in that regard, but she jokes [[{{Unishment}} she’d prefer if he was even harsher.]]
* HumanTraffickers: This story takes a slightly sympathetic angle on the topic: Emma and Roy’s parents, due to their debts, sold Emma as this to be a SexSlave for one gold coin, prompting the two to run away together until they got saved by Sophia. It’s noted by Cyril that this is an everyday occurrence in that world’s slums, as part of the game’s theme of Light and Darkness. When negotiating with the Dark Guild for permission to keep the two as servants, Nameless insist on knowing what will be done with them before agreeing. The two’s parents when they appear are portrayed as people who were just between a rock and a hard place, as well.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: During Sophia’s first martial arts class in the Academy, both her and her instructor hold back, which the instructor realizes as she nearly grabbed a concealed weapon.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Pamela’s household are poor despite being Earl ranked, or at least compared to that rank.
* ImprobableAge: For all of the intrigue and political maneuvering going on, as well as the romance plotlines, it’s hard to believe that most of the cast are around twelve years of age. This is highlighted by the contrast of Prince Alforth’s normality. The situation is commented on InUniverse, with the King commenting that Sophia’s level of influence is abnormal considering middle-school factions are supposed to be pretend practice for the real political struggles of adulthood, but Sophia’s father sees it as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior and is utterly terrified of her.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Alicia and Prince Alforth’s common social blunders relating to their status and those of their surroundings.
* InstantFanClub: Sophia’s first day at the Academy sees her taking one of these to a tea party, and building on it from there with exclusive treats courtesy of Cyril, looking after them as TeamMom. It’s existence is justified both by her high pedigree and her impactful debut two years earlier. The group grows to rival the royal prince’s factions.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler: Prince Alforth declares this about Sophia when he asks Cyril to play the prince at their SchoolPlay, due to Sophia playing the Heroine at the last minute.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The mystery of who was investigating Cyril at the school entrance exam was the start of one of these. All of the questions raised are properly answered in time.
* KarmicThief: Nameless is a scapegoated former noble who only takes actions that he sees as justly punishing the cruel nobility; he backstabbed the game version of Sophia for asking him to perpetrate the very crime that happened to him. He makes sure nothing too bad will happen to Emma and Roy when Sophia picks them up.
* KneelBeforeZod: [[spoiler: When Jill-cliff and Serges demand this of Cyril for speaking out of turn in the rose garden, it crosses Sophia’s RageBreakingPoint.]]
* LadyAndKnight: Sophia and Cyril are probably more like this than lady and butler. The dynamic has aspects of both the light and dark types, as befitting the CentralTheme.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The maid who was about to spend years bullying Sophia was MadeASlave and sold off to the Dark Guild thanks to Cyril’s intervention and investigation of her other crimes. In the game timeline, after she was found out, she was instead executed.
* LegacyOfService: It’s a common practice for noble households to keep the same family as their servants over generations, and Cyril comes from one such family; his father Cedric is the butler to Sophia’s father. Raymond's father is also a butler who died trying to shield his master in their crashed carriage.
* LikeADaughterToMe: Queen Adale sees Sophia like the daughter she could never have, having had only sons.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: According to Cyril’s mother, he got the trait of being a perennial heart-breaker from his father.
* LikeMotherLikeDaughter: Sophia's fierce rages were inherited from her mother, according to her father.
* LoveAtFirstSight:
** Cyril notes that it’s not uncommon for boys to react this way to Sophia.
** A side story showing Alicia’s first meeting with Cyril shows that it was this for her.
* LoveDodecahedron: What starts as a simple trio of [[LoveTriangle Love Triangles]], turns into this once the spinoff game and its capture targets and "villains" come into play.
* LoveTriangle: Multiple, although the two in opposition tend to have a FriendlyRivalry and actually get along pretty well.
** Cyril and Prince Alforth over Sophia.
** Sophia and Alicia over Cyril.
** Libert and Cyril over Alicia.
* LowCultureHighTech: In order for the setting to have spotlights and such, this is justified in two ways: First, it’s a transmigrated game setting, and the game designers wanted nobility tropes but also such modern props for storytelling convenience and to keep things pretty. Secondly, in the world, it’s explained that these are magical items that were developed by nobles due to extended times of peace.
* TheMafia: The Dark Guild led by Nameless.
* MagicEnhancement: Some of the magical spells that Cyril knows from his past life are of this flavor, for instance, allowing him SuperSpeed to save Pamela from hitting the floor when she faints.
* MassOhCrap: This happens frequently in situations where someone is unaware of the DoubleMeaning of their actions, but everyone around them are. Most notably being when the Prince offers Sophia a blue rose. Him doing so can be seen as [[AccidentalProposal a proposal]], and the situation with them being around his followers, turning him down will heavily affect her family. It was thanks to Cyril's quick thinking that it was avoided.
* MediaTransmigration: Cyril transmigrating into an otome game he played due to the influence of his past-life sister.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: The woman who tries to unnerve Cyril with seduction when he first meets with the Dark Guild gets roundly ignored by him.
* ObliviousToLove: {{Averted}}. Cyril knows that Sophia and Alicia have fallen for him after the prince’s birthday party. He shows some evidence of being in denial that it's just temporary for Sophia, but not obliviousness.
* OutlawTown: The slums, which are home to The Dark Guild, who deal with HumanTraffickers, and presumably other black market dealings.
* OvertOperative: Cyril’s servant classmate Luke is really not good at hiding his spying.
* PastLifeMemories:
** Cyril awoke to these around the age of five, before his character’s personality could properly form.
** [[spoiler: Tristan on the other hand, awoke to the memories of Cyril’s past-life sister much later on, resulting in something of a FusionDance.]]
* PennyAmongDiamonds:
** Cyril is not just a commoner, but a servant too, meaning there are even more strict restrictions on his behavior. So this trope is heavily woven into the work, pointing out all the everyday things people say that he and other servants aren’t allowed to. The classes in the academy are actually segregated into Noble, Common, and Servant courses, but of course most of who Cyril interacts with are nobles and he’s always walking on a tightrope.
** Downplayed with Alicia, a lower ranked noble.
** The protagonist of the game’s ExpansionPack Pamela is an ImpoverishedPatrician.
* PleaBargain: In the Roy and Emma side story, this is how Cyril gets one of the crooks involved in the real estate FrameUp scheme to spill the name of their employer, allowing him to blackmail the employer’s parents.
* ThePromise: Cyril promises to do something no matter what it is for Sophia to calm her jealous rage at one point, and it’s repeatedly referred to. [[spoiler: Sophia calls it in on Cyril to save Fol from her seemingly incurable illness, but he encourages her to do so because he knows its treatment, since it’s the same illness Sophia has.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Libert is paranoid generally and about Cyril due to his past involving his innocent sister being killed by a noble. This makes Libert one of the less foolhardy students, in their setting filled to the brim with scheming and backstabbing. Cyril doesn’t blame him for being cautious. Indeed, Libert knows that being involved with Cyril will lead to being involved in big incidents, which Cyril apologizes in advance for.
* {{Protectorate}}: Cyril’s key motivation is protecting Sophia, but she has similar goals regarding him, which puts them at odds sometimes.
* PsychoticSmirk: Sophia tends to make these when plotting, she later reveals that she actually learned it from Cyril.
* PushoverParents: {{Subverted}}. Sophia’s father Grave seems like this at first, for allowing his daughter to take Cyril as her escort to the Prince’s birthday party and other things. But it’s later revealed that she has been extensively pressuring and manipulating him, leaving him utterly terrified of what she might do to him.
* QuakingWithFear: Sophia’s father Grave, after having been scared of Sophia’s TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior for years, is left like this upon realizing that he’s been caught breaking his word with her.
* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler: When Jill-cliff and Serges demand Cyril kowtow for speaking out of turn, causing Sophia to rave about their hypocrisy before beating them down, having them locked up, and driving their family to ruin.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cyril’s servant course teacher Tristan, as well as King Theodore and Queen Adale. The latter mention that Cyril would likely be executed if anyone else were in charge.
* RebornAsVillainessStory: The person reincarnated into the Villainess story is not the villainess herself, Sophia, but rather her butler, Cyril. However, in the endings which feature Sophia's death, Cyril is executed as well for being an accomplice, so his neck's still on the line. To this end, he manages to make himself her butler when they're both six, deals with the childhood issues that would lead to the worst of her later villainy, and tries to get her on the path to marrying a prince. Hampering this is that Sophia is in love with Cyril for all he's done for her, and some of those darker traits he tried to prevent come out when she gets jealous.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Sophia’s eyes turn red when she’s extremely angry, due to her FictionalDisability.
* ReincarnateInAnotherWorld: The protagonist Cyril, with the added twist of his home being a world of both modern technology AND advanced magic that he studied at the college level.
* RenaissanceMan: Cyril is a pretty good example of this. He notes that servant education expects one to be this rather than specializing.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Tristan did a FusionDance with Cyril’s past-life sister when awakening to her PastLifeMemories at a later age than Cyril did. The one who sent Fol, Luke, and Chloe to spy on Cyril was in fact Tristan. That was because, having knowledge of both the game and its ExpansionPack from those memories, Tristan was WrongGenreSavvy that Cyril was a HaremSeeker scoundrel, and wary of him, but also suspected Cyril’s identity and thus ability to save Fol from her critical illness. The reason Fol’s advisor, who wrote the SchoolPlay script based on the game, was a “she”, was because Fol was aware of the dual persona.]]
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: This ends up happening between the political machinations of Sophia and her father Grave. [[spoiler: Sophia actually was successful at convincing him to let her marry Cyril after they figure out a way to make him a noble… however, the Royal Family ends up becoming a problem because if Cyril was adopted by them like they want, the influence and power represented by Sophia and Cyril would leave the Rosenberg household entirely, causing Grave to warn Cyril not to stand out too much. He ends up bending to Sophia’s will after she finds out.]]
* RoyalFavorite: It’s explored that certain forms of this are actually common and expected, such as a higher ranking noble taking a lower ranked one under their protection in a mutually beneficial arrangement, as well as commoners being sponsored due to the talents they display. Sophia does this for the nobles of her self-created faction, and the objective of many of Cyril’s servant’s class is to obtain such a patron. As for the type of favorite described by the trope, Cyril himself is a good example due to Sophia’s favor allowing him to get away with speaking as equals to those above his status.
* TheScapegoat:
** This is the backstory for Nameless, who got scapegoated for the crimes of another noble which led him into ruin and seeking revenge on nobles who abuse their power.
** One of the ends for Sophia in the game was being scapegoated by the Elitist faction just so, which makes Cyril extra vigilant about them.
* ScoundrelCode: Nameless’ Dark Guild has a number of rules and codes of conduct despite its illegal nature.
* SecretKeeper:
** [[spoiler: Sophia’s father Grave knowing that Cyril has the cure for Fol’s deadly illness, and holding it back as part of his own plans, which get busted when Sophia orders Cyril to treat her.]]
** [[spoiler: Fol knowing about the world being based on a game, having learned it from another reincarnator, Tristan.]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: The dances that Sophia and Cyril had with Fol in their entrance exam were this, for instance, to how Cyril would react to Fol forcibly leading him.
* SeriesGoal: Our protagonist Cyril’s goal is to both protect and prevent the fall into darkness of Sophia.
* SiblingTeam:
** Roy and Emma as servants in training after being taken in in an AdoptAServant manner by Sophia.
** The elitist brats Jill-cliff and Serges who follow Prince Alforth around and butt into his dealings with Sophia.
* SoProudOfYou: Cyril has many moments like this for his friends, mostly Sophia due to educating her.
* {{Subtext}}: It’s almost a RunningGag about Prince Alforth not understanding any subtext being said around him, and the accidental subtext interpreted from his own words. To a lesser extent the other students have this going over their heads, but at least their servants tend to whisper to them to explain it. It’s only natural since they’re around twelve years old.
* TeacherStudentRomance:
** Considering Cyril is her PrivateTutor, all of the romantic developments between him and Sophia qualify as this, although at least physically they’re the same age.
** InUniverse, the Tristan route in the game could see the protagonist Alicia romancing said teacher; at least he wasn’t teaching her class, but the servant’s course.
* TeamMom: Sophia is a good example of this, mothering her friends and faction members as well as the slum children Emma and Roy.
* ThereIsAnother: [[spoiler: Tristan, the King's butler, reveals he knows Cyril shouldn't have been Sophia's butler for another three years.]]
* ThroughHerStomach: Cyril does this for Sophia, and to an extent to other friends and servants. He’s almost like a doting grandparent in that regard.
* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: [[spoiler: Sophia’s older brother challenging Cyril to a duel for making her cry, which also served as a test to see if he is worthy of her.]]
* TooMuchInformation: Cyril feels this way about the arguments that Fol and Prince Lancelot have around him.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sophia’s is shortcake.
* TragicVillain: The multiple villainous daughters of the game’s setting were this in one way or another. Cyril doesn’t intend on letting it happen.
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler: Prince Alforth being so clueless is mainly the result of his PrivateTutor being in the pocket of the elitist faction. This ends when the advisor is exposed and executed, and then Cyril appointed to tutor Alforth instead.]]
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: From the perspective of Sophia’s father Grave, her engaging in political scheming from as early as the age of 10 is this. Nobles are generally expected to grow up fast, but Sophia easily acts twice her age, and considering her actions through the story can be quite terrifying.
** Cyril's own father experienced this when he returned home one day to find his son - still only a few years old - was talking with a vocabularly and reading books way too advanced for his age. In general, Cyril's knowledge, skills, and wisdom are seen as unnatural to every adult he meets. However, it's also seen as impressive and desirable, which leads to many aristocratic parents trusting him with their children's education: such is the case with Sophia and Alforth, hoping that his troubling unchildlike behaviour will actually rub off on them.
* {{Unishment}}: Sophia is a little too excited to be punished by Cyril.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: For the game’s ExpansionPack, the player gets punished with a BadEnd if they’re three-timing the three capture targets.
* VillainousBreakdown: In the game’s Alforth route, Sophia was supposed to go on one of these just before her execution. Subverted when the cast do a SchoolPlay version of said scene, changing it with a massive AdLib.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: Averted by Cyril, who plans in advance for just about everything that could be a danger to Sophia. For instance, [[spoiler: he buys info on Jill-cliff and Serges to blackmail or destroy them should the need arise, operating on the hunch that they had skeletons in their closet because they didn’t appear in the game.]]
* VillainTeamUp: In the game’s ExpansionPack, pursuing all three of its capture targets at once would cause all of its potential villains to team up and drive the protagonist to ruin.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Cyril’s relationship with Libert develops into this.
* WatsonianVersusDoylist: The explanation Cyril gives for the game’s medieval setting having spotlights and regulated sewers and such, makes sure to cover both of these perspectives.
* WhamLine: In Chapter 16 we get this bombshell.
-->[[spoiler:'''Tristian''': [[ThereIsAnother He (Cyril) wasn't supposed to show up in the academy until three years later.]]]]
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: This was a part of what deteriorated Sophia’s mental health in the game timeline, along with her maid bullying her, molding Sophia into a {{Yandere}}. Despite Cyril fixing the maid issue, she still seems to be one or on the verge of being one. It was also why the game version of Sophia had a big brother complex.
* WifeHusbandry: While Cyril was specifically trying to prepare Sophia for her trying noble life and appeal to Alforth in order to be able to win his love (which she failed to do in the game), one could easily interpret Cyril’s actions as this, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. He is called out for it more than once.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Considering most of the cast are around 12 years old, you could count any of the more intelligent ones as this, but especially Cyril due to past-life knowledge and Sophia as the result of him teaching her.
* WrongGenreSavvy: [[spoiler: Tristan thinking that Cyril was some sort of HaremSeeker scoundrel. There was actually a lot of evidence for this conclusion, since Cyril unknowingly took romance flags from the ExpansionPack as well as the main game.]]
* XanatosGambit: Cyril’s ever-shifting plans involve protecting Sophia at any cost, even if that cost is his own life or suffering, a fact that Sophia is really disturbed by as that’s the last thing she’d want.
* {{Yandere}}: Half of Cyril’s worries are about Sophia going full yandere over him, which he calls “falling to darkness”. As things are, she’s pretty much a GuileHero yandere who uses connections, plots, and schemes to get to her objective of being able to marry Cyril despite their difference in pedigree. There is actually an explanation for her yandere outburst to Cyril: She has an illness that effects her mental state when her mana levels overflow.
* YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe: Cyril gets more and more exasperated like this as he learns about how he had been unknowingly getting entangled in the game’s ExpansionPack and meets the repercussions.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler: Fol has an incurable illness that’s slated to kill her before half a year is up. It’s hinted through her symptoms that it’s the same illness Sophia has, and Cyril does indeed treat her.]]
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